SD projects receive preservation award
The Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) presented the Governor’s Historic Preservation Awards to 16 groups throughout California late last year in Sacramento.
Among this year’s recipients were the San Diego Padres for Western Metal Supply Company Rehabilitation. This historic 1909 warehouse building was fully incorporated into the recently completed Petco Field and made part of the left field seating. This combination of historic preservation and ballpark design is unique in California and highly unusual nationwide.
Also recognized was the San Diego Parks and Recreation Department for Spreckels Organ Pavilion lighting restoration in Balboa Park. The organ pavilion was built as part of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Unique to the pavilion was exterior lighting integrated directly into the building’s “case-stone” ornamentation, but by 2004, more than a quarter of the 1,734 fixtures were no longer functioning.
Since its inception, the awards fete has differed from other preservation award programs in two important respects: It emphasizes involvement by community groups and recognizes a broad array of preservation activities, from building rehabilitation to archaeology to interpretation to preservation planning.
San Diego’s restoration, which complied with Secretary of the Interior standards, was a spectacular project the public can enjoy for another 100 years.
The OHP has given out the award since 1986, when Gov. George Deukmejian established the Governor’s Historic Preservation Awards Program.